The Second War -Take 2-
by xLETxITxRAINx
Summary: This story is a rewrite of my previous one of the same name. During celebration, it's easy to let the little things slip by. That lapse in concentration was exactly what Venjix was waiting for, what he needed to rebuild his strength. In a world changed by the promise of peace, changes need to be made. But his goal is the same: destroy the power rangers and create a new world.
1. Chapter 1

**Well Hello everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm so sorry for everyone left waiting for this story to be continued. Whether you've jumped over from the original story or you stumbled across this some other way, welcome! To make things clear, this is a rewrite of a story I started in 2009 called The Second War. My goal is to rewrite that with new plots and story lines in line. I hope you enjoy!**

"Well, Rangers." Dr. K began, an air of finality to her voice as she sealed the Morpher case, sharp clicks filling the otherwise silent garage. "Your work is done. I must say, I'm very proud of all of you. It's not something I say often so…" She let the thought hang.

"As of right now, your morphers are retired, and you cease being series operators. I'm afraid… this is where we part ways." She looked down, something that looked like distress flickering across her face for a fraction of a second before she composed herself.

"I do have one last thing for you, however." A different case, less important looking than the one she'd just sealed away. "These are communicators. In an emergency, it will allow you to access your specific bio fields once. Use it wisely. And if you should need anything… well, we are all just a button away." She handed them out quickly, watching quietly as her friends parted only moments later.

"Where are you off to, doc?" Scott couldn't help but ask. Her entire life had been dedicated to this technology. With it sealed away, what could she focus on? "Well..." She began, cracking a soft smile. "Ziggy and I have decided to open a school for children."

The green ranger popped up as if on cue, grinning widely. "Yeah. She's going to teach then the microbiology and sciency mumbo jumbo. You know, the fun stuff." She nodded, playing along. "And Ziggy will teach them shadow puppets and cooking. You know, the tough stuff." Summer raised an eyebrow, chuckling a bit. "Ziggy?" There was only the slightest hint of a flush to Dr. K's face. "Well, he's not a series operator anymore. I have to call him something."

The pair escorted the rest of the rangers out, watching as Gem and Gemma danced excitedly around Scott, rapidly discussing just how big of a boom they could get a military vehicle to make. Flynn took his own direction, out into the city where his Father's garage was. Summer was the last to leave, hesitating as Dillon helped his sister into his car.

"Dr. K…" She began, coming closer. "If plans change…. I hope we'll hear from you." The doctor just looked confused, mouth opening as if to say something, before glancing at Ziggy, her mouth falling shut immediately. "…Of course, Summer." She agreed, name still sounding foreign on her tongue. "Stay safe." The blonde smiled, nodding as she climbed into the passenger side.

Dr. K watched as they left, frowning again as a weight draped itself over her shoulder. Again, she wanted to protest, pick Ziggy's arm off of her like she normally would but… well, she needed to learn to pick and chose her battles. She decided instead to smile softly, holding her ground. Sure, they had a lot of planning to do, but they could pause a few moments to say a proper good bye to their friends.

It was late when Ziggy heard the incessant beeping of an alarm on the computer set up next to the bed. He groaned, hand flying blindly around, looking for a snooze button to hit. He finally found it, hitting the button a few times to no avail. He groaned, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and rubbing sleep from his eyes.

He stumbled over to the computer, hitting a few buttons and pulling up a video message. " 'ello?" He muttered, resting his head on his hand and nearly falling back asleep as the awful noise stopped. "Ziggy? Ziggy, wake up." A familiar voice demanded. "Hmm… five more minutes, I think." The green ranger decided, soft snoring beginning a few seconds later.

"/Ziggy/." The voice demanded again, louder. Ziggy's head slipped off his hand, landing on the desk with a loud thud, effectively waking him up. "I'm awake, I'm awake. I... Dillon?" He asked, grinning sleepily at the sight of his friend. "How long's it been? Few years? How you-" The black ranger sighed, cutting him off. "We can catch up later. It's an emergency."

That made Ziggy more alert. "Oh, okay. Listening. You get to the talking, I'll get to the listening." He babbled. There were hushed voices in the background of the video call, before Dillon began speaking again. "Things have gotten…weird, recently. Everything's been quiet. But the other day, we were working in a settlement, and Tenaya just... collapsed. Summer figured it was just the heat or something, but it was /hours/ before she woke up. And once she did…" He shook his head.

"Long story short, I don't think the anti-virus worked at all, Zig. She was gone. We figured it was just a fluke or something, but it's been happening more and more recently, for longer periods of time." He looked over his shoulder for a second, clearly worried. "We're coming back." He announced when he turned back, voice strangely steady. "As soon as possible. And we need Doc to be ready to go with... something that can help her. You understand me?" Ziggy just nodded, mouth going a bit dry. "I… yeah. Okay, got it. Dillon, I-"

Ziggy feel silent at the sharp bang off screen. "What was-" But Dillon was gone, already after whatever the noise was. "Summer? You-" Another bang, and Ziggy could see the black ranger tossed easily across the room, image filled with static for a moment. It cleared as another figure came into view, tapping carelessly on the screen.

"Well well well, if it isn't the green ranger." Tenaya cooed, voice carrying over the feed with a strong electronic undertone. "Long time no see. How are things over in Corinth? I must say, I miss it." She laughed, before pausing, eyes flickering momentarily before she was back on track.

"You know, it was /surprisingly/ easy for my master to hack into those silly little morphers, and rebuild his strength. I mean, you practically handed his power over to him. Thank the doctor for that." She chuckled, pausing again. "In fact, I believe he wants to pay a personal visit. When you see him, don't forget-" There was a loud thunk, and her eyes rolled back in her head, falling unconscious on the ground.

Summer was standing behind her, part of a broken pipe in hand. "…I improvised." She shrugged, sitting at the computer. "Ziggy? You still there?" She asked. "We need to get back to the city. I've been trying to contact Dr. K, but her communicator's turned off." Ziggy nodded slowly. "She uh… she switched it off. She needed sleep. I… "

Summer cut him off. "That doesn't matter right now. I've been doing some scans of Tenaya, but I can't make heads or tails of all these numbers." Dillon joined her back on screen, talking over her. "Do you have any idea what she was talking about? The morphers are all locked up, aren't they?" the green ranger nodded quickly. "Of course. It was all nonsense I-"

Ziggy paused, listening closely. He could hear a noise, soft and barely there, but he could hear it. "Shh." He hushed his friends, listening. Nothing for a minute, before the quiet creek of a floor board. He swore, practically leaping out of the chair and into the hallway."Ziggy!" Dillon protested, swearing loudly. "What the hell is going on?" He shut up, though, as another figure sat in front of the desk, face serious and focused. "Doc… nice pjs." He commented after a minute, not processing much more than that.

"Thank you, Dillon. Now, Summer, if you wouldn't mind forwarding me those figures." The blonde nodded, typing a few lines into the computer, before hitting send. "Dr. K, do you know what's going on?" The doctor looked up, face pale, bags under her eyes more pronounced. "If I did, you'd be the first to know. Be back here as soon as you can. And bring Tenaya." Without another word, she ended the transmission, fingers typing a mile a minute.

Ziggy swore loudly, fumbling with the communicator attached to his wrist. "Come on… come on." He swore, finally hitting the right button. "RPM, Get in Gear!" He said automatically, activating the emergency bio-field connected to his ranger powers. He didn't stop running for a second, pushing open a door near the end of the hall before faltering.

"..Scott?" He questioned, eyebrows knitting in confusion. "What are you…" He froze when he saw what the red ranger was doing, bent over the small wooden crib in the center of the room. "You're not Scott." He accused. "/Very good/." The figure answered, straightening up, arms filled with a bundle of blankets. "You know… accessing the red ranger's bio field was surprisingly easy." It droned, voice synthetic and electronic. "You thought you destroyed me, but all I had to do was download myself into one of your silly little morphers. And here I am now."

Ziggy shook his head, teeth grinding. "Venjix. Put her down." He demanded, hands balling into fists. He knew he couldn't do anything as long as the robot was holding the child. "Please. What do you want?" There was a pause, as the virus began pacing the room, drawing the whole process out. "You're going to let me walk out of here." He began, snapping his fingers as grinders assembled in the room. The green ranger spun around, trying to protect both sides while still keeping an eye on Venjix. "And, please. Send my greetings to my creator."

A grinder grabbed Ziggy, and as the ranger struggled to get free, the virus managed to slip away, taking the child with him. The grinders were easy enough to take care of, even if he was out of practice, but none of that mattered. He raced downstairs, and out the front door, but there was no flash of red, no sign to point him in the direction Venjix had taken. He was gone.

Dr. K stopped her typing, keeping her ears peeled for something, anything. "…Ziggy?" No response. She tried again, stomach sinking with each passing second. She tried again, before pushing up from the desk. She found him sitting in the frame of the front door, head in his hands. "…What happened?" She asked quietly, feeling sick. There was silence for a minute, before he lifted his head up. "He… he's gone." Ziggy managed, throat tightening. "He's gone and he took her. "I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything, and I'm…. I'm sorry. He had it all planned out, I wasn't thinking, I couldn't do anything. He got her and I couldn't- " He choked out, shaking his head.

The doctor came up from behind him, kneeling next to him and taking his hand. "It's not your fault. It's not your fault." Her stomach felt like it was carrying a huge weight, but she couldn't say that now. Logical. She was the calm, cool, logical one. And Ziggy needed her to be that now. "We'll fix it. We'll fix it." They had to. This was supposed to be over. It needed to be over.


	2. Chapter 2

Waiting was the worst part about the whole thing. Just having to sit there, not able to do a thing. It was awful. Sure, Dr. K kept herself busy as usual, running figures and data late into the night. She didn't sleep. She didn't need sleep, there we things that needed to be done and not nearly enough time to do it. But Ziggy? She'd looked up every once in a while to check on him, stomach twisting at the sight of him. He didn't move, didn't eat. But if she had to guess, he was probably just as worried about her as she was about him.

They'd moved back into the garage almost immediately. While the doctor busied herself in her lab, Ziggy tackled the rest of the building, cleaning it from floor to ceiling. It was easier than thinking, or sitting around and doing nothing. Cleaning was mindless. He'd been on the floor of the garage, scrubbing it with an actual brush when Flynn arrived. The blue ranger made his presence known by bending down in front of the other, clicking his tongue slightly.

"You called it spandex again, didn't ya?" Ziggy glanced up, a soft smile working itself onto his face. "Hi, Flynn. It's good to see you." He said sincerely, pulling his friend into a hug and allowing him to help him off the floor. "How's your dad?" Flynn grinned, smiling and clapping Ziggy on the back. "Me da' and I have been busy, but can't really complain. You holdin' up alright?" He asked gently.

Ziggy shook his head, throat closing a bit. "No. No, not really. But… the place has never been cleaner. Been busy." He decided on finally. "Just… busy. Uh… Dr. K's in her lab. I wouldn't bother her right now. She's… calm cool and collected, like usual. Which is what I'm afraid of. She's bottling it up again and… well, I'm worried." He shook his head again, chewing on his thumb nail as a nervous habit. "Let me get you something to drink." Flynn looked like he was about to refuse, but Ziggy cut him off. "I like to keep busy...Playing host… might help." The blue ranger nodded, motioning for Ziggy to continue.

He set Flynn up with a drink, before looking around for something. "Shit, I forgot. Uh... uh… there it is." He said, grabbing what looked like a metal detector from a table. "Arms up, if you don't mind." Flynn raised an eyebrow, taking one last sip of his smoothie before putting it down and raising his arms up. "I'm guessing you didn't really hear the whole story?" With the blue ranger being so close, he was the only one Ziggy and Dr. K saw on a regular basis. Scott and the twins were constantly busy with military missions, so they were only heard from every few months. Flynn had met the baby, and knew almost immediately what was going on.

"Nah, but I figured I'd pick up on bits and pieces along the way." He knew better than to pry. Ziggy nodded, motion jerky as it had been every other time. "I don't really get it all but… Venjix downloaded onto Scott's morpher… or at least, that's what I got from all that. Doc's running scans..." He trailed off, hitting a few buttons and scanning his friend. "Clean. You can put your arms down."

He tossed the device back on the table, climbing onto a stool and twisting the seat absent mindedly. "Anti-virus failed on Tenaya too. She's blinking in and out. Kind of like Dillon was…we're worried about him too…" Back to biting his nail. "Just…. Thought he was gone… and I tried but I couldn't…. can't de-morph." He managed after a pause, sighing. "She says I can't de-morph or I might not be able to morph again. She's got to make something new. It's…. I'm confused." He glanced up, nodding somewhere behind Flynn. "Hand me that rag."

The Scotsman did so immediately, clearly concerned. "Whatever's going on, she'll figure it out. She always does." He comforted. "And I love that babe like she was me own. We're gonna get her back. Nothing's going to happen to her." Ziggy just nodded, wiping the counter down, like he hadn't already done so three or four times.

It only took Scott another day to get back, the twins trailing loyally behind him. Their normally happy smiles seemed forced, and nowhere near as bright. Flynn was the one to greet them, Ziggy having retreated back to Dr. K's lab to clean there. "What's going on?" Scott demanded as soon as he was through the door. "I'm gone on a mission, next thing I hear someone's parading around in my ranger suit and no one's going to bother telling me the whole story?" The blue ranger held his hands up to placate his friend. "Bits and pieces. It's good to see you too." He said dryly. "Before I forget…"

He tracked down the same device Ziggy had used, holding it up to each one in turn. Sure, he couldn't read the symbols on screen, but since no alarms were going off, he assumed they were safe. "You're clean. And before you start a fuss-" He began, cutting the red ranger off before he could complain. "I only know a bit myself. And I'll fill you in on what I know, but you've got to be patient. They lost a daughter, Scott." His angry expression faded immediately. "The baby? Out of /everything/ he could have done he took the baby? Why?" Flynn just shrugged. Gem and Gemma stayed oddly silently, exchanging a sad glance between them.

"Okay… what can we do to help?" Scott asked. "Well… leave a few footprints, leave some dust. Dirty up a bit." The blue ranger suggested, turning back to the kitchen to continue working on lunch. "Ziggy likes to clean up. Just… let him. Doc, well, I haven't seen her. She's been cooped up in her lab, hasn't come out. I'm not really sure what she's doing. Ziggy's not making much sense."

They spent a few hours catching up, filling each other in on what they'd missed and trying to make the garage livable again. Everything fell silent at a loud sound, the Fury screeching to a stop as soon as it was within the garage's door. Dillon was first out, pulling his sister from the back seat. Tenaya was shaking violently, clearly crying as she tried not to cry out in pain. "It hurts. It hurts." She insisted, eyes switching rapidly from red to brown and back again.

The black ranger just kept her still as much as possible, not even bothering to make eye contact with the other rangers as he made a beeline for the lab. "Doc!" He insisted, walking straight through the doors. She looked up, as if startled to see someone else in her lab. "…Put her down." She said after only the shortest of pauses, getting up from her desk and accessing a computer program. Dillon followed her, setting Tenaya down on the medical bed and strapping her arms in. "I'm sorry... just in case." The rest of the team followed in behind him, keeping a respectful distance. "She's fighting it." Dr. K muttered, glancing between the computer screen and the actual girl.

"The Venjix generation seventeen virus has worked its way into her genetic structure, bonding with micro-organisms and nervous cells which connect to vital part of her brain that can sense a biological disturbance. If my calculations are correct, the virus has special technology, that when it reaches the bloodstream it will send out a wave of its own electronic micro-organisms, which travel to the brain, and create a sensory burst of electrons, which generate the assumption that the systems of her body are in pain, thus the screaming." She glanced up, sensing she'd lost her audience. "The pain's all in her head. It's not real. The virus is just making her think she's in pain to wear her down, so it can take over."

Dillon just shook his head. "Well, that's great Doc, but how do we stop it." She shook her head, brain moving a mile a minute. "I don't have the proper anti-virus developed yet. Until I do, our best bet would be to shut the entire system down, at least until we can turn the virus off. No more pain, no more advancements, no more potential damage." She took a deep breath. "My suggestion would be a medically induced coma."

"No." Dillon growled. "You're not putting my sister in a coma! What if that thing just takes the opportunity to completely take over?" To her credit, Dr. K didn't even flinch. "It won't. It's relying on her vitals to grow, Dillon. Freeze her, freeze the virus." She stated simply. "I'm sorry, but we don't have much other choice, unless you want it to completely take over." He paused, clearly not happy about the situation. "Fine. Do it."

"/What/?" Tenaya demanded, clearly panicked. "No, no, don't put me under." She pleaded, trying to shift away as Dr. K hooked her up to various needles. "I don't want to go under. Please, don't let her." Dillon bent down so he was right next to her, taking her hand. "Hey. It's gonna be okay, you hear me? You're just going to be sleeping. You'll actually get some rest for once. And when you wake up, no more pain. It'll all be fixed. I promise." He looked up as someone tapped his shoulder, meeting the doctor's eyes. "I believe this belongs to you." She said simply, handing him the silver pocket watch, before going back to work.

Dillon nodded, setting it on the table next to Tenaya's head and opening it. "Hey. Hey, calm down. Listen to this. You'll be awake before you know it." He promised, rubbing a thumb over her knuckles. "It's fine." Her breaths came out in short breaths, but it was gradually slowing as she tried to focus on the music. "I-" She began, before collapsing back onto the table with a groan, drug already working its way into her system. "Vitals are stable." Dr. K noted. "She's fine. Virus activity regressing. Brain waves registering as normal." Dillon frowned, looking up at her. "So it worked?" She nodded slowly, eyes fixed on the screed. "For now."


End file.
